Labyrinth of Shadows
The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of Ebisu's footfalls as he walked forward to face the entrance of the labyrinth. Even the trees seemed not to rustle as if they were tense with nerves for what was to come in this first trial of Galdrabók's first S Class Trails. Ebisu couldn't help but feel the eerie design that was poured into the construction of the maze that stood before him, watching as shadows slithered up and down the cracks of the brick walls in the bright moonlight. He mentally applauded his guildmaster for finding a way to truly embody the Halloween spirit in this trial, as just the sound of the starting bell tolling through the still air made the demon inside of him stir with excitement at the potential mysteries Ebisu will encounter on his path to the greater honor he wished to earn within the walls of the guild he called his home. With the bell signifying the start of this trial, Ebisu took one last look over his equipment to ensure that he was all set and prepared for whatever trap was headed his way. He knew that the maze was encased in a barrier spell that would give random doses of Illusion Magic to mess with the minds of two participants this year, and that there were numerous normalized traps that have been made safe, but would count as a "hit" if he were to fall for them. Ebisu knew that most of the traps mechanics he may be able to detect with his Static Detection, so he was keeping his sense sharp. That air was so quiet that it seemed like his heartbeat echoed from all directions as he made his ways down the long stone path of the first hallway of the maze. When he found himself at a crossroad, he took out one of his throwing knives and dug it into the crack of the cobbled stone path beneath him. He then pulled out a strand of wire from his gloves and tied it in the hole at the top of the knife, giving himself a trail to follow back on, should he make the wrong turn and find himself crossing over an already traveled path. As soon as he heard that it was a maze they would be traveling, he took note from a classic childhood tale to leave himself a trail so that he wouldn't find himself lost in what could be an ever changing maze. It was after a few cautious turns that Ebisu found himself in a more expansive area of the maze that was perhaps fifty feet across and thirty feet wide, with three pedestals on one end, and a large door with a lock on the other side. Ebisu could only guess that he was on the right path, but made sure to keep his safety line in tact for now, as he walked up to the three pedestals that held different shaped keys atop them. Each key seems to be made of a different material, one gold, one silver, and one bronze; and below the key is an inscription on the pedestal. Ebisu leans in close to examine the keys, noticing that they are on some sort of stand that has been raised up, leading him to believe that it could be a pressure sensitive switch that would set of a trap if he were to choose the wrong key. He sighs, knowing that riddles were sure to be in the maze if it was Theodore who put it on, as his bookworm friend was always one to choose wits over sheer force. As he looks at the inscriptions he notes that each pedestal has a different expression followed by the phrase, "Only one is true." He assumes that means that only one key is the true key to let him through, but as he reads the phrases he knows that that phrase has a double meaning. Beneath the gold key is the phrase "This is the real key", the silver key said "The key is not right", where the bronze pedestal states that "The gold key is not true". Ebisu ponders for a bit, taking in the words slowly. Speaking out loud to himself he does his best to work through the problem, "So if I choose the wrong one some sort of trap is going to go off, so I know I need to pick correctly. So if only one statement can be true, the other two must be false. Now if the gold key statement is true, and it is really the true key, then that would make the bronze statement false, and the silver statement...wait a sec..." He says slow, reading over the silver statement once more as he runs his fingers through his hair. "The key is not right, oh snap, I thought it said this key isn't right! I guess a slip up like that is what Theodore would want, to see if we could focus under pressure. So that means that the silver statement says the key is left, which would point to the gold key. But if the gold key statement is true, then that would make the silver true as well, so that can't be it. So it must be the bronze key then!" Ebisu says, confident in his decision as he double checks his answer before grabbing the key. But unbeknownst to him, all three answers would have activated a trap, with only one key allowing a way out of the room. So as soon as Ebisu lifts the key off the pedestal, a stone door slams closed behind him as spikes protrude from the walls and begin to close in on him. The other two pedestals quickly fall through the floor, taking their keys with them, leaving Ebisu with only one key and a very short amount of time to get across the room and unlock the door. Activating his Thunder Surge, Ebisu uses his enhanced speed to zip across the room and land himself in front of the doorway. Praying to the gods he inserts the bronze key and give it a twist as he glances to the sides at how close the spikes were getting. Luckily for him the lock unclicks and Ebisu twist the handle and quickly dives through the door to escape the walls that loudly clamp shut together. "Well I guess there's no turning back now. That really crushed my dreams of finding a way out with no traps." Ebisu says as he chuckles and gives himself a high five. Cutting off his strand of wire, hoping to save some for the rest of the maze, he moves in the only direction that he is now allowed to go before he notices the same sort of architectural divots in the floor that the stone pedestals had in the last room. "Guess pressure switches are really in this year... better be ready." Ebisu says as he takes a side step to avoid the raised stone, creating a dome-like Thunder Devil's Shield in both hands to prepare for what could come. As he moves to avoid the raised stone he feels the stone beside it sink down a bit before a click could be heard. "Well shit... there was no winning!" he said as he sees a metal dart stick into one of his shields as Ebisu begins to run through the hallway. A dozen or so darts come from almost all around him and impale his makeshift shield before they all seem to cease, and Ebisu is able to take a few steps unhindered. With a heavy sigh Ebisu sets down a knife as he rounds another corner and comes among a precarious sight. Among the hall was a sprinkle of toys strew about like an overactive child who had just open his Christmas morning. Every red was the exact same one, a brilliant cherry scarlet that reminded him of his childhood. Every blue was a bright royal hue, neither dark or light, rich with the dreams of a child like time that Ebisu had somehow forgot. That's when Ebisu saw a child bent over on the ground laughing while playing with a little train. There was a familiarity about the kid that Ebisu couldn't quite put his hand on. It was as if Ebisu saw him as a reflection of himself, and had the strong urge to get close to him and save him from a danger unknown. But that's when Ebisu saw the flicker of a flame so brilliant light up around the corner, casting the boys shadow all the way down the hall to where Ebisu was quickly walking to catch up to the boy and escort him back to safety. But as the glowing flame grew closer to the boy, Ebisu couldn't help but feel his throat grow dry and his heart beat erupt like the fire that spread out around the boy. Ebisu did his best to run and save him, but the hallway just seemed to get longer and longer, his heavy breaths drifting away in the stagnation that was his proximity to the boy. The toys that were vibrant hues of dreams and joy melted away into the body of the flames as Ebisu reached out his hands, desperate to save the boy from the flames. A loud screech erupted, as the flames seemed to take on the personified shape of a demon that Ebisu knew all too well. The last thing he saw before the demon took shape was the boy turning to face Ebisu; showing eyes of the same shape and color as the mage's were reaching out for help from the man that boy would become. "You bastard! Why must you take everything from me!" Ebisu said to the fire demon who had devoured his younger self, bringing up thoughts of the past when Ebisu had first been consumed by the thunder and fire devil that thrashed about inside of him. Sticking out his hands Eibsu let out a barrage of Piercing Arrows towards the demon, shouting with rage as his attack was effortless absorbed into the demon's body as the screech grew louder. Ebisu could feel tears welling up in his eyes as memories of losing his family, losing his home, and almost losing his sanity to the demon of his past and present. He wanted to use all his might, all his power that he had fostered, to take down the demon of his past; but he paused. He had already overcome this obstacle. He had found his salvation in the arms of Galdrabok, in the arms of his friends within the guild, and in the strength that they gave him to overcome any challenge and temptation that the demon would throw his way. "You don't scare me anymore. You can't take away my life any more. You many have frolicked freely about, stealing my childhood, my family, and my will to fight on once before. But now...now you bend to my will. You listen to my commands and my spirit, because I have already defeated you long ago." Ebisu says as a few tears fall from his eyes while he presses down on his ring to bring forth a grenade. As he presses down on the trigger and pulls out the pin, he speaks, "Your rage can no longer run rampant in the puppet you think you own. Because I am stronger than you now; and your own strength, you blood thirsty demon, is all just an illusion." He says as he releases his hold on the trigger and tosses the grenade towards the demon, letting out a blast of Nullification Magic from the grenade, leaving the flames to wither away like dust in the air. "Illusion Magic... I thought I would have been strong enough to overcome it. God, I can't let my emotions get the better of me, I should have learned that by now." Ebisu says as he opens his eyes, which had been closed to protect himself from the flash of light that accompanied the grenade. That's when he realizes that he had found himself wrapped up tightly in a plant known as devil's snare, the vines already wrapping up his legs and getting tighter and tighter from the stress that Ebisu was already feeling from the illusion. "Come on! Thunder Devil's Sabre!" He shouts, a lighting sword forming around his right arm. It was common knowledge that devil's snare hated bright lights, and the sword itself would make it far easier to cut through the vines and escape to safety. That was when he saw that the devil's snare lined a great deal of the hall, more growing as he cut it down. He realized that trying to cut it all down would waste a great deal of the time he had left, and would be a lot of energy for him to expend. "Peregrine Flight!" Ebisu exclaimed as he fought back the vines with his sword covered hand. With his free hand he used the wire attachment on his glove to construct a useful Wire Magic spell that allowed him to form a giant bird. Keeping his wire attached to the large bird, he lifted up away from the vines, fighting some off as the stretched out to keep him grounded. As he rounded the corner away from the vines he had a thought of just flying up over the maze to the exit, and so he instructed the wire falcon to raise up into the air to give him a better vantage point, when all of a sudden his bird was shocked by a powerful spell that caused it to unravel and send quite a shock into Ebisu. Falling back onto the stone floor with a thud Ebisu let out a harsh huff, "Ugh, damn that hurt. Must be some sort of Barrier Spell or Jutsu Shiki to prevent us from just going over or under the maze...makes sense I suppose, but geez, it didn't have to hurt so much..." He said as he got up and rubbed his muscles discontentedly. Ebisu got up and continued to follow a winding path through the maze, being careful to not back track on the trail he was leaving for himself. There had been no major traps like the ones he had already faced, with things like trip wires and pitfalls being easy to circumnavigate or overcome, so Ebisu was a bit stumped on if he was even on the right path anymore. Just as this thought was crossing through his mind he turned around the corner to see a large green wyvern blocking his way. Darting back behind the wall he just came from, Ebisu was relieved that he reacted fast enough so the wyvern wouldn't see him. Well guess I must be getting close if these traps keep getting more and more dangerous...It didn't see me, but it will probably pick up on my scent in no time so I have to think fast...I don't want to fight it, as I don't want to hurt the poor creature, so perhaps a counter trap would be best suited. Alright here goes nothing. He said as he formed a hand sign for the number 8 and turned around the corner to face the wyvern. He was met with a roar as Ebisu got a good visual of the space he was working with. The wyvern began to charge towards him, but before it could reach him, Ebisu let forth his Formula 8 Spell to create a giant black dome around the wyvern, being careful to shrink it down so it didn't hit the barrier like his hawk did before. The light absorbing barrier probably would only hold a thrashing wyvern for 10 minutes or so, but it gave Ebisu enough time to create a Teleportation Portal to bypass the dome and continue on his quest for the exit. Once he passed through the portal, and the wyvern was now behind him, he quickly began running down the corridors, wanting to get as much distance between him and the beast before it broke out. If luck was on his side, his dark barrier would help calm the beast down, or he would be able to find the exit in time before it tracked him down. He knew his time was probably running low and so he wanted speed on his side, so he activated his Synaptic Acceleration to give himself a speed boost to get through the twists and turns of the labryinth. That was when he saw it, the moonlight gleaming down a hallway as if it were welcoming a spirit through the gates of heaven. Ebisu could almost feel the stress melt off of him as he raced into the clearing of land outside the maze and stopped his run to let out a sigh of relief. "Woo, I made it! Thank heavens man, I don't know how much longer I could have lasted. I was getting cabin fever in there." He said as he ran his fingers through his hair, cutting his safety line that saved him some time from repeating paths inside the maze. "I wonder how Wolfy did, I'm sure he probably made it out before me, but I can't wait to see what traps he ran into while he was in there. What a fun story this will make." He said with a bright smile, eager to see what will await him in the next part of the trial. Category:Galdrabók Category:Galdrabók S Class Trials Category:Lady Komainu